


Flip or Flop

by JetGirl1832, tomatopudding



Series: We the People of an Unconventional Life Style [2]
Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Home Improvement, M/M, Nursery, Other, Polyamory, Pregnancy, Surprise! - Freeform, established relationships - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-05
Updated: 2016-06-05
Packaged: 2018-07-12 09:17:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,975
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7096435
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JetGirl1832/pseuds/JetGirl1832, https://archiveofourown.org/users/tomatopudding/pseuds/tomatopudding
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eliza has a surprise for her boys that spurs them into action. Or at least spurs Alex into action, John just gets dragged along for the ride.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Flip or Flop

It wasn't like the pregnancy came as a surprise. The three of them had been trying for several months now, she and Alex through natural means at first before they'd decided that John should have an even chance to be the child's father and had moved to in vitro. But now it was finally official. An egg had implanted, Eliza was pregnant.

Now she just had to tell them, her heart fluttered at the very thought. The excitement bubbling up within her was nearly unbearable, she nearly sprinted up the stairs to their apartment. She pushed open the door, "Alex? John?" she called out as she entered.

Her boys were curled up together on the sofa watching some daytime soap opera. Alex had been put on an enforced day off after a particularly tough case he'd been involved in and John didn't have to go into work for another couple hours.

"Boys?" Eliza entered trying to get their attention.

Alex was the first to look at her, "Hello Betsey,” he grinned.

Eliza bit her lower lip and and wrung her hands, "I've got something to tell you."

John and Alex sat up as she said this, "What is it?" John asked.

"I had my appointment today," she said, resting a hand on her stomach and giving them a look.

John understood first and he gasped like the breath had been knocked out of him.

"Y-you mean you're-" John stammered.

Eliza nodded, "I am."

John let out a laugh and jumped to his feet, dislodging Alex and tumbling him to the floor, swooping Eliza into an enthusiastic hug.

"Hey!" Alex got up off the floor and he went to join in on the embrace, "so we're going to be fathers?"

Eliza giggled, "Yes."

Alex threw his arms around Eliza and kissed her cheek, "That's fantastic, that's so beyond fantastic.. I don't even have words to describe how fantastic it is-"

"Can't you say anything other than fantastic?" John chuckled.

"Oh hush," Alex shot back at John.

"Boys enough," Eliza smiled.

"I can't believe we're gonna be parents," laughed Alex.

Eliza took his hand, "It's pretty amazing isn't it?"

"It's fantastic," said John with a teasing grin.

Alex scowled and playfully smacked the back of his head, causing John to chuckle and affection shy kiss the tip of Alex's nose.

Alex turned his attention back to Eliza, "Can I?"

Eliza giggled, "There's nothing there yet."

Alex still lay a reverent hand on Eliza's belly, a look of awe on his face.

"You are so cute," John said, resting his cheek on the top of Alex's head. He and Eliza shared a knowing glance while Alex continued to beam at the place where his hand rested.  
~~~~~~  
Later that night, John was awoken by the feeling of someone climbing into bed beside him. He hadn't been expecting it. Generally, John and Eliza had their own rooms and Alex flitted between the two, depending on whose night it was. They certainly didn't have a typical arrangement, but it worked for them. That night had been Eliza's so finding Alex curling up beside him was a welcome surprise.

"Hi there," John chuckled.

"I still can't believe it," Alex sighed contentedly, "we should do something..."

"Like what?" John wrapped his arm around Alex.

Alex hummed in both thought and contentment, snuggling into John's side and throwing a leg across his hips.

"We could decorate the nursery," Alex suggested.

"Yeah?" John laughed, "and what do you know about doing that?"

"How hard can it be?" Alex shrugged.

"You're going to regret those words," John grinned.

Alex half-heartedly hit John's chest with his palm. 

"But how about you regret them in the morning," John suggested tiredly, already halfway fallen back asleep. Alex mumbled in a agreement, his own eyes fluttering closed.

\----

The next morning John and Alex set about making plans on doing the nursery, all without Eliza's knowing what they were up to.

"We'll need some paint, and a crib-" Alex began to list off while writing it down on a pad of paper. John looked on in amusement.

"And exactly what color do you intend to get?" John asked.

"Something neutral," Alex said with a wave of his hand, "Yellow, maybe. We'll also need a rocking chair. I saw something on the news that said rocking chairs are better for breast feeding than regular ones."

"I don't think that's true," chuckled John, "but I won't protest."

"And toys, do we need toys?" Alex muttered, "I mean we will-"

"I think there are other things we need besides paint, like tape and drop cloths-" John cut in.

"Right, right," agreed Alex, "Maybe one of those bouncing swing things that attaches to the door frame?"

"Let's not get carried away," said John, "We're putting together the nursery, not stocking up for his or her entire life."

"I know-"

"And I think there are some things that Eliza would like to have some say in," John laughed.

"Okay, I get it," grumped Alex, "I'm going overboard."

"Aw, baby girl," John laughed, pressing a kiss to Alex's cheek, "That's one of your traits that I fell in love with."

"You're lucky you're cute."

"Now we'd better get moving on this if we don't want Liza to find out what we are up to," John smirked.

Getting to the hardware store was the easy part. John should have expected that Alex would pore so intently over the different color possibilities for far too long, insisting that he needed to choose the perfect one.

"Alex," John all but whined, "Just grab your favorites and we can put up samples then choose later."

"I wanted to get this done today," insisted Alex.

"Alex, light of my life and likely the father of the child we are creating this room for, this was never going to all get done in one day."

"We could try," Alex muttered as he started pulling paint chips.

"You can try," John laughed, "I know that it's not going to happen."

"Fine," Alex walked over to the paint counter, "I'd like samples of each of these."

"Alright," the clerk smiled taking the chips and walked towards the computer, "I will let you know that these samples only come in one finish, this one being the eggshell and that the paint is not formulated for long lasting use-"

"That's fine," Alex replied interrupting her.

The clerk typed away at the computer until it printed out a few labels, tearing them off the she went to go fetch the bases required.

“Hey,” Alex said as they waited, “we should do wallpaper!”

John sighed, “Alex…”

“No wait, hear me out,” Alex rushed on, “Just that strip wallpaper stuff. We can put it right where the walls meet the ceiling so we don’t have to do any measuring or anything.”

“Fine,” John agreed. It would be easier to just go along with Alex’s craziness, “I’ll wait here for the paint, you go pick out some wallpaper.” 

“Great,” Alex turned and went a couple aisles down for some wallpaper.

It was then that the clerk returned with four small cans in hand which she set on the counter behind her as she started prepping them to be tinted.

“Do you have kids?” John asked.

The clerk glanced at John, “My husband and I have been married for three years. We’re thinking about it.”

“And is your husband handy? Good with tools?”

The clerk frowned, clearly unsure where this line of questioning was headed, “Yes.”

“You’re lucky,” John said with a nod, “He can do up a nursery for you. Instead of some crazy, non-handy, ball of energy like my Alex.”

The clerk laughed, “Good luck with that.”

“I’ll let you know how it goes.”

Alex bounded back over, a roll of strip wallpaper in his hands.

“Look how cute it is!” He insisted, unrolling the wallpaper slightly. It had a background of tie dyed pastel colors and with a line of smiling, yellow rubber ducks.

John sighed, “Fine, but you’re the one who is putting it up.”

\-------

John glanced pointedly at the small droplet of paint in the previously pristine carpet. They had only just started putting up the sample colors and Alex was already making a mess.

“You were right,” Alex grumbled, “We’ll get drop cloths.”

\-------

Several weeks later, Eliza returned home early from work. It had been a half day, but she hadn’t told her boys since she knew they were both home and she wanted to surprise them. When she entered the apartment, she heard their raised voices coming from the spare bedroom. 

“Not that piece!” John was saying, “No don’t, wait wait wait.”

“John I’m so sorry!” 

Eliza followed the sounds of their voices and the grew louder as she approached, what were they doing in there?

The door of the spare room was open. The first thing Eliza noticed was that the walls were painted a sunny pastel yellow. There was what appeared to be strip wallpaper in a messy pile in the corner, obviously a failed attempt if the way it was sticking to itself was any indication. John and Alex sat in the center of them room, a partially assembled and slightly precarious looking crib beside them. Alex had a stripe of the yellow paint down his cheeks and small flecks of it could be seen in John's pulled-back hair. John was making a slightly pained face, his hand in Alex's grip.

"Hi," Eliza said.

Both of them turned to her with matching surprised expressions.

"Hi Betsey," Alex replied his face red.

"What's going on here?" Eliza looked around.

"We wanted to surprise you," John replied.

"Surprise?" Alex said weakly. He inadvertently squeezed John's hand causing the other man to hiss in pain.

"Fuck, sorry," apologized Alex, releasing his grip slightly, "Are you bleeding?"

"No, it just pinched a little," answered John before turning to Eliza with a pout, "The crib bit me."

Eliza knew they wouldn't appreciate them laughing so she held it in, "You two are so ridiculous... No wonder I love you," she smiled.

John and Alex smiled back at her.

"But I think you're going to need some help with this project."

"Huh?" Alex raised his brow.

"You let me handle this," Eliza giggled, "in the meantime why don't you go and clean yourselves up a little bit?"

As she left the room, she heard John say, "I'll let you make up for pinching my finger in the shower" and she shook her head fondly at the hurried footsteps that followed.

Eliza went and grabbed the phone sitting down on the couch she dialed her parents number and waited while it rang.

"Schuyler residence, Sky speaking."

"Hey, Sky," Eliza greeted her brother.

"Liza! It's been forever!"

"Oh sure, don't talk to your brother," he drawled teasingly.

"Don't be a brat," retorted Eliza, grinning.

"Yeah yeah," sighed Sky, "Dad! Liza's on the phone!"

There was the sound of shuffling as Sky passed the phone to their father.

"Good to hear from you, Pumpkin," Philip Schuyler said happily.

"Hi daddy," Eliza smiled, "this isn't exactly how I wanted to tell you this..." she paused, "but my boys really need some help before they completely destroy our apartment-"

"Alright," Philip laughed, "what's going on?"

"Well," Eliza said, drawing the word out slightly, "you're going to be a grandfather."

There was a moment of silence from the other side of the line and Eliza fidgeted with the hem of her blouse.

"I'm going to be a grandfather," repeated Philip, "Please tell me this isn't a dream."

"This isn't a dream," Eliza replied dutifully with a small giggle.

"I..." Philip seemed stunned, "Pumpkin that's wonderful- I can't wait to tell your mother..."

"I know, but if you don't get over here soon who knows what's going to happen," Eliza sighed.

"I'll be right there."


End file.
